Train fares - sometimes it's cheaper to "travel" further

[foreversomeday]

Hello everybody. I hope this hasn't been posted before. As a new visitor I'm finding it slightly confusing!

Anyway I noticed this slight flaw in the train system while on holiday in Scotland over the summer. I was staying with my cousin in Stirling and we got the train down to Edinburgh every day to see the festival. The only problem with this was that it was not possible to buy a return ticket (Checking now it seems it is possible to buy a cheap day return, possibly we were trying to get a return for the next day which is not available) and when we asked the staff why they said it was because you could only buy return tickets for journeys over an hour long.

What was annoying about this was that the journey is literally anything between 53-57 minutes long, barely under an hour, and we found that if we'd bought a return to (Or from, if we were buying online) the next stop after Stirling it would have worked out cheaper. (And then still got off and re-boarded the train at Stirling)

This should work with any train journey just under an hour, unless obviously you're going straight to the train's final stop from it's first departure.

[AP]

Please note that if you are buying a Saver Return ticket, you are not allowed to break your outward journey, i.e. alighting short of destination or join the train midway. It's ok for a Cheap Day Return or a Standard Day Return. There is no such restriction on the return journey.

[alanrowell]

It isn't legal unless you have a ticket that allows break of journey

[foreversomeday]

I wasn't aware of this, so if I buy a train ticket to one of the two stations near my house and happen to meet a friend on the train and so get off one stop early I would be breaking the law?

[mh123]

Not "The Law" per se, but the terms & conditions of carriage. You could be asked to pay again for the actual journey undertaken. Assuming there was a ticket inspector or an automatic barrier on the gate as you leave the station at which you alighted... (whole different story!)